


ablaze

by acidicsuga



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Arson, Arsonist Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Lowercase, L’manberg, Pyromania, Reckless Sapnap, Sapnap burns the forest and feels euphoric, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:32:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29982210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acidicsuga/pseuds/acidicsuga
Summary: dream recalls sapnap always playing a little too close to fire, but doesn’t question it when sapnap offers to burn down the forests around l’manberg.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF)
Kudos: 26





	ablaze

dream wasn't blind. he had always seen sapnap tempt flames. he'd seen his friend play with fire plenty of times but he never asked—never dared to push the boundaries they had created during their adventures together.

sapnap was just a pyromaniac. it was rational in dream's mind. he never had an easy life and he knew sapnap didn't either. he rationalized what he saw by simply deciding sapnap was a pyromaniac.

part of him knew he was wrong. he knew it was more than that. he knew from the moment he caught sapnap staring at a flame in the palm of his hand that he was wrong.

the flames danced eagerly in sapnap's hands as if they enjoyed the man's presence. sapnap just stared back at them seemingly just as infatuated with their presence as they were with him. the flames didn't hurt him and he didn't hurt them.

for the first time that night dream realized his rationalizing was something he'd put in place as a form of denial.

dream should've noticed earlier. sapnap never put out a fire. never. every time they packed up camp he'd see the flames still licking at logs on their campfire and sapnap would be ready to leave, ready to let a whole forest burn because of their little campfire.

perhaps sapnap was ready to watch the forest burn all those days just like he was that very day. when dream had decided they needed to burn up l'manberg's resources he knew he could count on sapnap.

he had met his best friend outside the community house early that morning and explained that he planned on setting the forest around l'manberg ablaze. instantly, sapnap told him he would take care of it.

dream knew he should've questioned it, knew he should've asked why he was so willing to destroy such a beautiful forest on a whim, but all is fair in love and war so he nodded. it was one less thing he had to handle.

now, he and george were staring down at the destruction below them in the valley. it was all so meticulous—all so calculated and defined, but all so very sapnap.

the man himself stood in the very center of the harshest flames, watching them grow and expand. they were practically engulfing the trees around him, exposing him to smoke and looking as though they should've been burning him alive at any given moment and yet the man seemed to be at peace.

"dream, he's- he's going to die if he doesn't get away from those flames," george said, seemingly very alarmed as he watched sapnap get even closer to a column of flames that were engulfing a particularly tall oak. "what the hell is he doing?"

"i don't know..." dream mumbled. he was just as antsy as george as he watched, but he understood that sapnap wasn't going to get hurt. he remembered all those years ago when sapnap held the flames in his hands.

he wasn't supposed to see it. sapnap never wanted him to see him with the flames in his hands. as soon as sapnap saw him the flames licked up his arms and seemingly sank into his arms. it was almost as if he consumed them himself.

dream was too stunned to speak on what he had seen and sapnap was pretending as if he hadn't been caught. he never brought it up—acted as if it had never happened and dream didn't push him because maybe he had dreamt it all up.

maybe he hadn't actually seen what he thought he did.

"dream we need to go and get him," george said suddenly as sapnap leaned against a burning tree. "he's going to get burnt alive."

george was on his feet in an instant, pulling dream up with him. they needed to act fast, but dream was locked in place. sapnap was so eager to burn this forest to a ground of a reason. he wanted to do this because all these years he had been hiding this shit from dream and george and now he finally had a way to tell them.

"no. no!" dream grabbed george, pulling him back down so he was seated next to him again. sapnap knew what he was doing. just as every fire he lit only set one tree ablaze the fires he lit would never set him ablaze.

something about sapnap's fire was unique to him.

"he knows what he's doing. we have to trust him, george," dream gulped, watching as sapnap disappeared into an area of heavy smoke and flames.

"dream, are you insane?!" george shouted. sapnap had just disappeared from their vision and he could've been dead in those flames for all they knew. "he could be dead!"

dream shook his head. he didn't trust himself to speak now. soon enough sapnap would walk out of the brush with a stupid grin on his face that dream had grown to love throughout their years together. he knew he would.

sapnap wasn't stupid. he wouldn't do something that would get him killed so easily. he wasn't like that.

"dream..." george sounded defeated as he slumped on the ground, eyes searching through the thick pillars of smoke for their friend.

dream didn't say anything. he just watched silently.

sapnap knew better than to go too far.

by now the l'manberg boys were desperately trying to put out some of the fires, but it was all burning far too hot and with the arsonist actively setting more their was nothing they could do to stop it. dream just wished they would see sapnap and point him out.

they needed an indication that their friend was alive.

soon enough they got it.

sapnap emerged from the same area he had disappeared into but this time it was different. their best friend's hands were actively alight with fire, his eyes burning a glowing orange as he drug his hands through the flames around him.

every flame that surrounded him grew larger and more intense, leaving the densely wooded area looking as if the sun itself had scorched the earth.

except there was no sun here. there was only sapnap. only one pyromaniac, but he wasn't a pyromaniac at least not in the way that dream had previously thought.

this was different. this was clearly much different than dream had thought.

"what the hell?" george whispered, eyes wide beneath the sunglasses. he and dream wore similar expressions of disbelief as sapnap stepped away from the burning trees and back towards them.

he was carefully moving towards them, knowing his friends had finally seen what he was truly capable of.

"i don't know," dream whispered, watching sapnap move through the ashy remains of the forest he had already burnt to the ground in the early morning of that day.

the closer that sapnap got to them the more the flames on his hands and arms died down until he balled his hands into fists and the flames receded back into his skin, once again as if he had consumed them.

his eyes were still shining a brilliant blazing orange—matching the color of the flames behind him—as he finally got to dream and george. wordlessly, he sat down beside dream and stared out at the flames that were burning bright as they overtook the forest.

he wore an array of emotions on his face with one simple look. he was proud, relieved, accomplished, and above all happy. sapnap was untouched by the flames. he was practically glowing from finally being able to let it all out.

so much tension all let out into one big fire.

"sapnap?" george whispered, daring to speak first.

he and dream had always known that sapnap had an affinity to fire, but never to this degree—never to this caliber.

"i had to let it out at some point," sapnap said casually, finally looking over at his friends. he gave them a dopey grin almost as if he were high from the experience. "it was a matter of time."

"i- i thought you died," george blinked, wondering how sapnap could be so casual about what had just happened.

"i was born in fire. it wouldn't hurt me. we have an understanding," sapnap shrugged. he held his hand out beckoning for george to give him his hand.

the brit stared at him for a long moment before giving sapnap his hand. this left dream in a slightly awkward position of having george and sapnap's arms hovering over him, but at this point he was too entranced in watching sapnap's every move to make a fuss about it.

"do you trust me?"

"what? of course i do?" george gave sapnap a look. he could feel heat radiating off of sapnap's hands and it didn't surprise him, but he wasn't expecting what happened next in the slightest.

his whole hand was engulfed in flames. every single one of george's instincts was screaming at him to pull away and run, but the flames didn't hurt him. the heat was incessant and yet somehow didn't burn his skin—didn't even cause discomfort.

sapnap was perfectly in control of the flames.

"george?" dream asked suddenly. he couldn't believe the sight in front of him. he was watching sapnap engulf george's hand in flames, he could feel the heat from it and yet neither of his friends had made a sound of discomfort.

george opened his mouth as the flames disappeared again and sapnap pulled away, letting george's hand fall back to his side. "how didn't it hurt me?"

"i told you... fire and i, we have an understanding."

that's when dream finally got it. sapnap wasn't a pyromaniac. the fiery temper he carried matched his personality so well because sapnap was the embodiment of fire. he is fire incarnate.


End file.
